The history of the Beautiful land of Hawaii which is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on all sides dates back to more than a thousand years before James Cook and his crew found the island back in the year 1778.

The First Settlements in Hawaii

The Polynesian people sailing from other pacific islands were the first to set their foot on the land of Hawaii Islands. They are thought to have sailed to the Island by double hulled large canoes carrying their pigs, chicken, dogs and crops like sweet potatoes, sugar cane, coconut and bananas along with them.

Though no written evidence have been found, it is believed that the island was settled by two waves of migration, or the so called multiple migration process. As early as around 600 AD, the first settlement of a group from the Marquesas Islands called the Menehune set their foot on the Hawaiian Big Island. And about five hundred years later, in 1100 AD, the second settlement from Tahiti called the Tahitians arrived at the island bringing with them the social hierarchy system, the kapu or the taboo system and the belief in God.

Hundreds of years later, in 1778 January 20th, Captain James Cook and his crew landed on the Island and made the first ever recorded contact with the people of the islands Kauai and the Niihau. Though a lot of people have come to the island before Captain Cook, he is the first known European to find the Island and make contact with the people of the island. He called this newly found land as the Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich. After Captain J Cook, a number of other Europeans and Americans came to this place.

Kamehameha, born in North Kohala brought together the warring factions of the Hawaii Big Island under him in the year 1791 and then went on to unify the remaining Islands into a single kingdom with the help of foreign weapons and advisors. In the year 1810, the whole of the island was united under Kamehameha as the ruler, and he ruled this Kingdom for about a period of nine years. During his reign, he introduced a new flag that was much similar to the present day flag of the HAwaii.

After the death of Kamehameha, his son, prince Liholiho or Kamehameha II became the new king and within a year of his rule he abolished the hierarchical system of kapu which prevented the equal status of men and women and different classes in the society. After this, three more members of the Kamehameha family led the Kingdom and Kamehameha V was the last to rule the kingdom and it ended in the year 1872. After this, William Lunalino was elected and confirmed as the king by Hawaiian Legislature. During the monarch rule, the foreign trader's from Portuguese, Germany and Japan, started to come into the kingdom to establish their trade.

Over Throwing the Kingdom

In the year 1875, after the end of the Kamehameha dynasty, the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 was signed between the United States and the kingdom of Hawaii, which allowed the duty free import of sugar and rice from Hawaii to the United States. The western influence continued to grow during years and the American colonist who had the major control over the Hawaiian economy annexed the Kingdom in a controversial coup.

The Queen of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Queen Lili'uokalani started to draft a new constitution that was aimed at restoring the Monarch's authority, which was in response to the request of more than half of her subjects, and Hui Kalaiʻaina, a native Hawaiian Political party. This action led to the formation of the 'Committee of Safety' on 14th January 1983 by a group of European and American residents which committed it to remove the queen and to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.

The coup d'état lead by Lorrain Andrews Thurston overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani who was the last monarch and the only female monarch of the Hawaii and on July 7th 1898 the Kingdom of Hawaii was officially annexed to became a territory of the United States.

It was during the territory period that the sugar and pineapple plantation grew to bring in traders and other immigrants from Japan, China, Philippines and Portugal. And in the year 1941 America was attacked at the Pearl Harbor by Japan which triggered the World War II entry by U S. During the period of world war, Hawaii was put under the Martial law.

In 1954, the Hawaii democratic revolution began, which was a non-violent revolution which was including strikes, protests and civil disobedience to obtain the status of a state. In the year 1959, 18th of March the Hawaii Admission Act was signed by president Dwight D. Eisenhower after more than 90 per cent of the votes were casted favoring Hawaii entering the Statehood of United States. And thus Hawaii became the fiftieth state of the United States of America. And, from then on the Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian nationalism were reborn through a number of reformations and the passing of the Akaka Bill which gave federal recognition to the native Hawaiian Ancestry.